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This was the first year ever that I hosted my family for Thanksgiving. I was a little worried that some would be disappointed about the fact that I was not making anything traditional. No turkey, no breaded dressing, no mashed potatoes, no baked squash and no candied yams. I sent out my menu in advance just to get everyone prepared and I let them know that if they wanted to bring a pre-cooked piece of meat or a dish that to them would really make it Thanksgiving then they were more than welcome to do so. I was so pleased that everyone embraced this meal and no one opted to bring any meat or any other dish other than was was already discussed. They were so amazingly open to having a meat free, gluten free Thanksgiving and they all raved about it. I decided that it might be fun to share the recipes that I chose. I made some alterations to them all and I noted them along side each. I used organic options whenever possible. I hope you enjoy!

Greek Potatoes:http://allrecipes.com/recipe/31522/greek-style-potatoes/
I made with all yams but you can mix it up or do white. I also add in more garlic that it calls for and I add onions. Additionally if I have a full extra lemon around I like to slice half of it into quarters and spread throughout the dish while baking

Lentil loaf:http://ohsheglows.com/2012/10/05/glazed-lentil-walnut-apple-loaf-revisited/
I subbed zucchini for carrots and oats for breadcrumbs, cranberries for raisins. For the glaze I used organic ketchup and half regular basamic and half specialty balsamic (this is thicker and had a cherry flavor) I didn’t add in any extra sweetener as it requested and I used pepper flakes, just a shake or two.

Chelsea’s kale salad:http://cleansegirl.com/kale-quinoa-salad/
In this recipe I subbed rice for the quinoa and pumpkin seeds for the sunflower seeds and aged cheddar for the parmesan. Check here for the lime honey dressing too.

Roasted Squash:http://www.food.com/recipe/roasted-zucchini-and-yellow-summer-squash-484546
I think we could have really improved this one if we actually put it on a roasting pan as was suggested. It would have actually roasted/caramalized this dish rather than just cook it which sometimes gets soupy as this one did. We added in a half a cup of feta at the end and used fresh garlic instead of powder.

Maple pecan pie:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/maple-pecan-pie-104528I made a gluten free pie crust by finding a regular pie crust recipe and subbing ground oats for the flour and coconut oil for the lard. In the past this has worked well but this time it turned it into more like a pecan crumble but it was still good. A few substitutions in this recipe, I did not use flour, I used a TBSP of ground oats instead and I used coconut sugar instead of the two sugars it called for. I put in a total of 3/4 cups of sugar vs one cup and I put in about 3/4 of maple syrup, I used about 2 TBSP of butter & 1 TBSP of coconut oil vs. 3 TBSP of butter and I added in a half a cup of chocolate chips. I only did the switch up with the butter and coconut oil because we didn’t have enough butter or coconut oil. I used Madegascar organic vanilla and I think that so far has been the best I have found.

Raw Nanaimo Bars:http://www.mylivingnutrition.com/2013/09/21/nanaimo-bars/
As you know I made two kinds. I preferred these ones. They are a bit sweeter and they are also easier to source the nuts for as they take cashews vs. macadamia nuts – finding raw macadamia nuts is not easy I have found. As of the posting date of this, this URL isn’t working. I hope it comes back up! Otherwise I will be searching out and testing a new recipe.